The NFL announced its pregame entertainment headliners for Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas on Thursday, which consists of Reba McEntire, Post Malone, and Andra Day. Each will perform a separate patriotic song.
McEntire will perform the national anthem for the big game, Post Malone will sing “America the Beautiful,” and Day will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The latter, also called the Black National Anthem, is such a part of our culture that the initial blowback was surprising. It’s giving ‘oh, you just found out’ vibes.
The social media uproar is calling the NFL divisive for having James Weldon Johnson’s opus to the call of liberty for Black people in America performed during the Super Bowl. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was a hymn written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900. His brother, John Rosamond Johnson, composed the music.
The song is not a new tool invented to divide America. It is a song meant to unify those with a shared struggle within America, and it provides hope while paying homage to their ancestors. This moment shows that many in America do not want inclusivity; they want a homogenized static version that we all universally adhere to.
The Black cultural infusion into sports entertainment staples like professional football is jarring for many who pride certain sports institutions on upholding “traditional” American values. Football is No. 1 based on its immense popularity and baked-in racial hierarchies that have just been addressed in the past five years.
What’s more interesting than some fans believing that performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is a new “woke” culture tactic is that these same critics probably didn’t realize the song is well over 100 years old. Every HBCU, Black church, Black funeral parlor, and more recites the hymn throughout the year.
It is part of our collective identity.
Attempting to transform the song into a propaganda tool is ignorant and the exact reason why it should be played. If you are an American and don’t know ”Lift Every Voice and Sing,” you only know half of history.
James Weldon Johnson is as much Black History as American history, and the NFL represents one of the pinnacles of American sports. That’s why the Black National Anthem is taking its deserved place in the Super Bowl.
